Recently, partly due to changes influenced by climate change such as sea raise and stronger storms, there have been major catastrophes in coastal areas in the world both in industrialized temperate weather countries and in non-industrialized tropical countries. An example of a catastrophe in an industrialized temperate weather country was the one caused by Hurricane Sandy in the East Coast of the United States, one of the costliest catastrophes in the history of this country. During storms, the principal damages caused by water waves are erosion, especially by the removal of sand in sandy beaches, destruction of infrastructure close to the coastline, and flooding. Strong storms or rough waters in coastal areas have both direct and indirect economic and financial negative impacts. The direct economic and financial impact results from the urgent necessity to repair damage and to restore conditions of the coastline beaches and infrastructures.
As quoted in the 2013 Corelogic Storm Surge Report, “ . . . For many homeowners along the eastern seaboard of the United States, Hurricanes Irene and Sandy have been harsh reminders that hurricane risk in not simply confined to Florida or even just the southern states. Hurricane Irene arrived during the late summer of 2011 and caused more than $15 billion in property damage. The impact zone included 13 states and extended as far north as Vermont and New Hampshire, becoming the seventh costliest hurricane in U.S. history. As it turns out, however, Irene was a weak opening act for what was to come in 2012. Hurricane Sandy dwarfed the property damage caused by Irene just one year prior when its devastating storm surge struck the northeastern coastline in late October. As the storm barreled along the Atlantic coast, Sandy set records for surge water and wave heights in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The destruction attributed to this single storm is estimated at $50 billion, with some 650,000 home damaged or destroyed, and caused power outages in the Northeast affecting 8.5 million people.”
One of the indirect negative economic impacts, especially in coastal zones of tourist states like for example Florida and New Jersey, are reduction of tourism activities along after the passing of the storm. To have an idea of the importance of economic benefits derived from beaches in a tourist state like New Jersey, the following can be quoted from a 2010 Environmental Trends Report titled “Beach Replenishment” of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Science (http://www.nj.gov/dep/dsr/trends/pdfs/beach-replenish.pdf, incorporated herein by reference) “. . . New Jersey's beaches play a critical role in protecting people and property from coastal storm hazards. Due to its geography, New Jersey is sometimes in the path of hurricanes (tropical storms) and nor'easters (extratropical storms). Beaches act as a buffer between the surf and the homes, businesses and infrastructure along the coast. In addition, beaches provide recreation for beachgoers and fishermen and help support a multibillion dollar tourism industry. In 2008, the total economic impact of travel and tourism was $27.9 billion to the state, which accounted for 5.8 percent of the gross state product. In addition, 72 percent of each tourism dollar spent in New Jersey was retained in state, and 10.9 percent of the total employment in the state, 443,094 jobs, was due to travel and tourism economic activity. In 2008, tourism generated $7.7 billion in federal, state, and local government taxes. A regional breakdown of tourism shows that 33.4 percent of total statewide tourism expenditure occurs in Atlantic County, with the Southern Shore Region (Cape May and Cumberland counties) and the Shore Region (Monmouth and Ocean counties), contributing 14.5 percent and 13.9 percent respectively. In addition, Atlantic, Cape May, and Ocean counties are leaders in terms of tourism expenditure by county; these three counties combined contribute over half of New Jersey's total tourism expenditure.” After hurricanes like Irene and Sandy, the importance of coastal protection in coastal urban and tourist zones has never greater than today.
In the case of tropical countries, especially small island countries, climate change derived destruction, through sea raise and stronger storms, will heavily impact the economy of such countries. For example, as stated in a report prepared by Margaree Consultants Inc. for the World Bank in 2002 (Assessment of the Economic Impact of Climate Change on CARICOM Countries, incorporated herein by reference) “. . . In most of the eastern Caribbean states, more than 50% of the population resides within 2 km of the coast. Thus large populations and supporting infrastructure are located close to mean sea level. As a result critical infrastructure tends to be located in or near coastal areas. The projected sea-level rise will increase the vulnerability of that infrastructure, especially during extreme events. Due to the concentration of population in these areas, damage to important infrastructure may be disruptive to economic, social and cultural activities. The Caribbean region suffered considerable damage from severe hurricanes in the 1980s and 1990s. As a direct result, many insurance and reinsurance companies withdrew from the market. Those that remained imposed onerous conditions for coverage—including very high deductibles; separate, increased rates for windstorms; and insertion of an “average” clause to eliminate the possibility of underinsurance . . . ”
“Hurricane and tropical storm activity have had major impacts on Antigua and Barbuda's vital tourism industry. In 1995 Hurricanes Luis and Marilyn devastated coastal areas, causing severe damage to hotel and other tourism properties and leading to a 17% decrease in the number of tourist arrivals and adversely affecting employment and foreign exchange. The cost associated with damage from Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 was in the region of J$25 million. The 1998 hurricane season was especially devastating to Jamaica with long lasting effects resulting from hurricanes Georges and Mitch. Hurricane Lenny in 1999 caused approximately US$250,000.00 damage to tourism infrastructure in Dominica, mainly along the west coast. Tourism arrivals in St. Kitts by air and sea have been negatively affected by the passage of hurricanes Luis and Marilyn (1995), Georges (1998) and Jose (1999). Lost stay over tourist days in St. Lucia were estimated at 50% due to hurricane Allen.”
The report entitled, “Low-Carbon Climate-Resilient Development Strategy—2012-2020” incorporated herein by reference, states “. . . It is well-established that the countries of the Caribbean are among the most vulnerable to global climate change. While the severity of the impacts will vary from country to country, there is a suite of priority concerns directly linked to climate change that is virtually ubiquitous across the region. Sea level rise will combine a number of factors resulting in accelerated coastal erosion, increased flood risk and in some areas permanent loss of land. This may be exacerbated further by any increase in the destructiveness of tropical storms, the impacts of which may be greater due to sea-level rise even without increases in storm intensity.”
An example of the impacts of sea waves on beaches is presented in the UNESCO portal Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands (http://www.unesco.org/csi/act/cosalc/hur9b.htm, incorporated herein by reference), where the impacts that tropical storm waves had in Dominica is described as follows: “. . . Tropical Storm Iris passed 30 km west of Dominica, Hurricane Luis passed 180 km north of Dominica and Hurricane Marilyn passed less than 20 km east of the island. All three storms impacted Dominica, but Hurricane Marilyn was the strongest and closest. The combined damage from the three storm systems was estimated at US$184 million . . . ” “. . . Tropical Storm Iris damaged the west coast road and cut road access between Soufriere and Scotts Head. Hurricane Luis damaged coastal structures—hotels, roads, utilities, jetties and fish landing sites. There was severe damage to the beaches, especially on the west coast. In particular the northwest beaches from Prince Rupert Bay to Toucarie were heavily impacted. The road was washed out and the hotel damaged at Coconut Beach, similar damage occurred at Mero. Trees were undermined and washed away, and in some cases—Toucarie, Belle Hall and Mero—the sand was replaced with stones and boulders. At some sites such as Batalie, debris from the reefs was washed up onto the beach. New beachrock formations were exposed at some of the beaches e.g. Woodford Hill. The data show that the erosion was most severe on the west coast beaches particularly at Rockaway Beach, Mero Beach, Coconut Beach and Purple Turtle. The profile area decreased by 24%, the beaches narrowed by 6.7 m and the land edge retreated inland 2.4 m.”
For decades there have been many devices proposed and used to control force of water waves (in seas and lakes) that reach coasts and cause severe damage including erosion of beaches, flooding, destruction of buildings and boardwalk, and the like. These devices include seawalls, bulkhead, and breakwaters. In the case of breakwaters, they can be fixed caissons either submerged or that raise above the water line, or modular structures that can be fixed to the sea bed by piling or floating components anchored.
Fixed breakwaters, generally constructed with rocks, can be expensive to build especially when the water depth is more than 5 meters. Additional disadvantages of this type of breakwater, beside costs, are affectation of the beach view, and the accumulation of sand between the breakwater and the coastline.
Many modular breakwaters that consist of laminar components (like walls, plates or sheets) that block the horizontal movement of water waves are placed in location by piling. Revision of previous art indicates that this type of breakwaters can be impractical due to the following characteristics:                a) They protrude from the water all the time, creating a possible navigating hazard;        b) They are difficult to place on the water. To attach a breakwater to the bottom may require piling, making the deployment very costly; and        c) Water wave kinetic forces during storms could easily destroy this type of breakwater, due to the forces exert in the base of the pilings.        
Prior Art floating breakwaters, have other disadvantages:                a) They do not extend like a wall through the entire water column; therefore protection in the horizontal plane is not complete;        b) They stay afloat all the time, creating possible navigating hazards;        c) Due to the linear and/or cylindrical shape and the small diameter of the main components of such devices, a large number of units must be deployed in order to block the horizontal movement of water waves;        d) Even though Stokes Law movement of the water molecules keeps pushing these floating devices towards the coast, the circular or elliptical movement of the molecules during the passing of waves also makes these devices move in a circular or elliptical manner. This movement makes the barrier less efficient in stopping kinetic energy movement toward the coast due to the horizontal back-and-forth movement of the devices;        e) Although some of these devices are designed in such a manner as to create more resistance to the movement of water waves and to reduce the back and forth movement when the water waves pass though then, for example by placing plates or components a half-wavelength distance from each other, these type of designs are impractical to deploy and costly to build due to size (i.e., minimum a half wavelength); and        f) In many cases, these floating breakwaters are composed of many cylindrical units which are independently anchored and, since the diameter of each unit cannot be that large, a lot of anchors are required, as well as time to place them, in order to have an effective horizontal water movement blockage.        
A review of the Prior Art indicates that very few of the breakwater devices have been designed to be deployed and act only when major storms or rough waters reach the coast and raised or dissembled once the storm passes. The aforementioned problems or challenges are precisely those which the present invention is oriented to solve.